The Real Adventure eBook

Even the servant question was eliminated. “Ours
are so good,” Florence said, “that the
last time we rented the house, we put them in the lease.
I wouldn’t do that with you, of course, but I
know they’ll be just what you want.”
And six thousand dollars a year was simply dirt cheap.

To clinch the thing, Florence went around and saw
Frederica about it. And Frederica, after listening,
non-committally, dashed off to the last meeting of
the Thursday Club (all this happened in June, just
before the wedding) and talked the matter over with
Violet Williamson on the way home, afterward.

“John said once,” observed Violet, “that
if he had to live in that house, he’d either
go out and buy a plush Morris chair from feather-your-nest
Saltzman’s, and a golden oak sideboard, or else
run amuck.”

Frederica grinned, but was sure it wouldn’t
affect Rodney that way. He’d never notice
that there wasn’t a golden oak sideboard
with a beveled mirror in it. As for Rose, she
thought Rose would like it—­for a while,
anyway. Of course it wasn’t forever.
But this wasn’t the point. It was something
else she had to get an unprejudiced opinion on, “simply
because in this case my own isn’t trustworthy.
I’m so foolish about old Roddy, that I can’t
be sure I haven’t—­well, caught being
mad about Rose from him. It all depends, you
see, on whether Rose is going to be a hit this winter
or not. If she is, they’ll want a place
just like that and it would be a shame for her to
be bothered and unsettled when she might have everything
all oiled for her. But of course if she doesn’t—­go
(and it all depends on her; Rodney won’t be
much help)—­why, having a house like that
might be pretty sad. So, if you’re a true
friend, you’ll tell me what you think.”

“What I really think,” said Violet, “—­of
course I suppose I’d say this anyway, but I
do honestly mean it—­is that she’ll
be what John calls a ‘knock-out.’
To be sure, I’ve only met her twice, but I think
she’s absolutely thrilling. She’s
so perfectly simple. She’s never—­don’t
you know—­being anything. She
just is. And she thinks we’re all so wonderful—­clever
and witty and beautiful and all that—­just
honestly thinks so, that she’ll make everybody
feel warm and nice inside, and they’ll be sure
to like her. Of course, when she gets over feeling
that way about us....”

“She’s got a real eye for clothes, too,”
said Frederica. “We’ve been shopping.
Well then, I’m going to tell Rodney to go ahead
and take the house.”

Rose was consulted about it of course, though consulted
is perhaps not the right word to use. She was
taken to see it, anyway, and asked if she liked it,
a question in the nature of the case superfluous.
One might as well have asked Cinderella if she liked
the gown the fairy godmother had provided her with
for the prince’s ball.